By Jack Stubbs
The city of Carson – which is just northeast of Torrance and about ten miles north of Long Beach – has over the last couple of months seen a couple of noteworthy industrial transactions. And in early August, a 53,978 square industrial property, located at 18421 S Main St., was put on the market for $22.13 million, or $410 per square foot, according to the listing by Kidder Mathews.
Kidder Mathews did not respond to a request for comment about the property in time for the publishing of this story. Kidder Mathews is marketing the property on behalf of its current owner, an entity linked to Shultz Properties, Inc., according to public records, which acquired it in 2008 for $7.5 million.
The manufacturing/warehouse building, constructed in 2002 and renovated in 2020 for stages/production space, is available for lease or sale. The property, sitting on 2.47 acres, features a free-standing concrete tilt-up construction and 24-foot minimum clear height. The property includes 85 parking spaces and three loading docks.
According to Google Maps, the property is currently occupied by Off-Broadway West, LLC, a stage lighting equipment supplier.
The building is proximate to the intersection of Interstate-10 and Interstate-405, which provides access to Los Angeles International Airport about 14 miles to the north. The building is adjacent to several other industrial properties, some of which include trucking company Sivert & Sons Co., Environmental Noise Control and transportation service Pactrans, LLC.
The listing of the property on Main St. is not the only indicator of interest in industrial assets in Carson, as there has, over the last couple of months, been other notable activity.
In early June, The Klabin Company/CORFAC International finalized a 61-month lease at 1550 Charles Willard St. in Carson on behalf of Industrial Parts Depot, LLC (IPD), the new tenant of the 83,388-square-foot industrial facility.
In July, the joint venture of Simon & Macerich announced its plans to reconsider a 157-acre redevelopment project in Carson, which would entail the construction of a 400,000 square foot premium outlet mall on a former landfill site.
Taken together, these transactions suggest continued intrigue in Carson’s industrial market. More broadly, however, figures for the greater Los Angeles area paint a different picture.
In second quarter 2023, the direct market vacancy for industrial space in Los Angeles stood at 3.3 percent (up from the 2.8 percent vacant rate posted in the first quarter), according to Kidder Mathews’ Los Angeles Industrial Q2 2023 Market Trends report. The average asking lease rate rose to $1.89 per square foot in the second quarter on a triple net lease basis, up from the figure of $1.85 posted in the first quarter. Additionally, there were 6.43 million square feet leased in the second quarter, a notable decrease from the 8.47 million square feet leased in the previous quarter.
